Abnormal brain growth and function are features of autism, an increasingly common developmental disorder that now affects 1 in 60 boys in the US. Now researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Thoughtful House Center for Children in Austin, Texas, have found remarkably similar brain changes to those seen in autism in infant monkeys receiving the vaccine schedule used in the 1990’s that contained the mercury-based preservative thimerosal.

The group’s findings were published yesterday in the journal Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis. They used scanning techniques that assessed both brain growth and brain function in the same animals over time. The research team was able to see differences in the way the brains of vaccinated and unvaccinated animals developed. Scans were performed before and after the administration of primary MMR and DTaP/Hib boosters that were given at the human equivalent of 12 months of age.

Throughout the study period, vaccinated animals showed an increase in total brain volume – a feature of the brain in many young children with autism - when compared with unvaccinated animals. However, a specific part of the brain associated with emotional responses that is thought to be important in autism, the amygdala, did not show abnormalities until after the 12-month vaccines had been given. In addition, after the 12-month vaccines only, the functional brain scans showed significant differences between vaccinated and unvaccinated groups. These functional scans looked at the activity of receptors for morphine-like compounds (opioids) that may play a role in the brain of children affected by autism. Vaccine administration was associated with an increase in opioid binding activity in the amygdala compared with a decrease in the unvaccinated group.

The results indicate that multiple vaccine exposures during the previous 3-4 months may have had a significant impact on brain growth and development in ways that are consistent with the published data on autism. For the amygdala, the novel findings of abnormal growth and function appear to be a function of more recent vaccine exposures - the 12-month primary MMR vaccine and the DTaP and Hib boosters.

In an accompanying editorial Dr. Kris Turlejski, the Editor-in-Chief, described the findings as “alarming”, “support[ing] the possibility that there is a link between early immunization and the etiology of autism.”

In the same primate model, the research team has already identified delayed acquisition of vital brainstem reflexes in infants exposed to the thimerosal-containing hepatitis B vaccine on the first day of life, compared with unvaccinated animals. A larger, second phase study is currently underway to see if these findings can be replicated.

Dr. Andrew Wakefield, who is not a listed author but whose support in the design of the study is acknowledged, said “I hope the model will not only provide important insights into the origins of autism, but also ways of safely testing possible new autism treatments and vaccines.”

Comments

I can't say I agree with her. I've had another thought. In my family, there is a history on bot my mom and dad's side of siezures. My mom has absent siezures, something nearly impossible to detech and my dad had regular epilepsy. It made me wonder if those who have a history of siezure activity or inherit this from parents may be more likely to be damaged by vaccines.

If so, it would mean those with family history of siezures should be not taking the vaccine gospel!!

The dots that need to be connected are---behind every evil, are the same people------the "global power elite" and if you don't know who they are, you should. Arrest the top 5000 elitist scum for crimes aganist humanity and you will reduce the planets problems by 90%.

I am really interested on studies about autism since i have heard a prominent personality in our country having this disease....thanks for this post...is it true that most of the persons with autism were intelligent?

I've tried to find these studies refered to by denialists who state vaccines don't cause autism. Problem is, if they study the wrong trigger, or interpret findings incorrectly, or just plain lie, they can conclude anything. The statement by the vaccine court that "vaccines caused the conditions that caused autism" makes a lot of sense. It also explains and allows denialists to make the semantic statement that vaccines don't cause autism. They aren't wrong, but they are deceptive.

He oxygen went really low off and on for years, and years, and years before this finally happened.

A few years ago he had a sleep study done and oxygen was in the low 80s even dipping down to the 70s.

Walking around it dropped dangerously low, so he had to carry oxygen with him.

Finally, it became so very bad that when he was just sitting his oxygen was low.
He had a gray look about him.

The plumologists acted more like funeral home directors than doctors with thier long faces.

This spring he went in for an appointment and even though his oxygen dropped down low when he walked around - his oxygen was almost normal when he was sitting.

The chief pulmonlogist at University of Kentucky was amazed. He told me that sudies showed that life expectancy if oxygen was normal sitting was the same as anybody else's. Did not seem to shorten it any if it was low while walking around.

They were amazed! They started asking us what we had done differently.

For one thing - three years ago - I wrote a 10 page research paper on the Atkin's modified diet, epilepsy, mitochondrial disease complete with research footnotes to convince him to go on the Atkin's modified Diet. I finally convinced him and he had been on the diet every since.

This fall another appointment and they decided that they would do another sleep study.

We just got the sleep study back and-----

Here is what the other doctor ahead of sleep study center had to say:

"Impression: Although he has a history of significant sleep-disordered breathing, there was no evidence of it on this study. We cannot justify or document the need for either CPAP or oxygen on the basis of this test. We believe this sutdy is accurate: Mr. Steadweth slept reaonably well and went witout CPAP for 3 nights prior to this testing, so we do not believe this sutdy is falsely negative. Possible explanations for resolution of sleep-disordered breathing include weight loss, treatment of hypothyroidism, reduction in respiratory depressant agents, upper airway surgery, inaccurate oxitry reporting, or smoking cessation. He IS sleepy, but he is taking several medication that cause sleepinesss, and he likely has mood disturbance.
PLAN: We will invite Mr. Steadweth to the clinic to go over the sleep complaints, review this study, and answer any questions he may have. I would very much like to know what has cahnged in this man's life since 2005! I hope this report is helpful to you and to your patient.

How about that every body!

I have been doing this diet off and on with my son for years!!!! He is going to the community college and even though he will never be completly cured - I never ever imagined that my son would be going to college when he was 17years old or even 18 years old or even 19 years old - but the summer of his graduation he told MMMMMMEEEE he was going.

So, I know this is what they call causation or corallation or what ever.

the love of money...
I've got a very small sample size, 18 children (in my local church of 250 people) with no vaccines. Zero autism. Why in the name of the great horn spoon is there not a study of autism in unvaccinated children?
There is no lack of them among the Amish, homeschoolers and others. Someone get a petition going! It won't answer all the questions but it's a no brainer place to start.

Fixing his Leaky Gut (Candida), Putting LGG bacteria back into his system, adding Sublingual vitD3 and subcutaneous Methylcobalamine injections, Removing toxic foods from his diet, Chelating the mercury from his brain and Adjusting his lifestyle accordingly.

A year on and he converses and interacts in such a way now, that no-one would ever know what damage the mercury did.

But the damage is still there. If he feeds the Candida with Gluten, Casein, Soy, Sugar or Corn, the Candidas toxins travel up to the neurons and act as opiates on the neurons that mercury has stripped the sheaths off.

And Viola!!!, he becomes a full blown Aspie for the next 3 or 4 days. Not fun.

Such a small number of measles, mumps, and rubella cases occur in this country, why not just move the standardized schedule for the first MMR vaccination outside of the diagnosis window for autism (which is roughly between 1 and 3 years of age), instead administering the first MMR vaccine after age 3? Would it be so bad to focus on patient compliance rather than for Big Pharma to spend billions of dollars trying to disprove what parents already know?

Sigh. We're forgetting the #1 guideline when interpreting studies. Who funded the study? What do they have to gain? Sorry, but Thoughtful House now has a reputation among many autism professionals of being involved in intrusive, unnecessary procedures that aren't supported by other medical professionals. Thoughtful House = pure quackery.

As a parent of an autistic son, I am sharing this with other parents. Even with pretty obvious connection (like watching my son's development halt after receiving the MMR) the vast amount of mainstream magazines I've seen over the past year touting that vaccines don't cause any autism, I was happy to read this. I do not vaccinate my children any more after becoming more educated on this issue.

These pilot studies MUST BE DONE. Furthermore, the public should demand that human studies comparing fully-vaccinated versus never vaccinated be done. Such studies can be ethically-done with full compliance with Nuremberg Code and Articles of Helinski and rigorous Informed Consent. I believe that there will be sufficient numbers of volunteers.

Independent of their known neurotoxicity, aluminum salts and organomercurials, along with a cocktail of foreign proteins, and detergents, administered parenterally and serially, from cradle to grave, might not be conducive to health. We need to compare fully vaccinated with completely unvaccinated. NO, it is not unethical to do these studies. IT IS UNETHICAL NOT TO DO THESE STUDIES.

IMHO, gorski (orac) and offit are sociopaths, moral entrepeneurs, who are capitalizing on human misery and suffering. They have made faustian bargains. Their credibility is ZERO. They deserve our censure. They are absolutely pathetic, totally disgusting. Obviously, the Oath of Hippocrates means nothing to them.

I seem to remember this guy shouting from the roof tops that mercury was out of our vaccines.

The truth we see now, was yes it was out but only in the rhetoric.

In France where only two vaccines ever had mercury we saw the H1N1 vaccine with as much mercury as ever. And this was 2010.

An intelligent 95 per cent REFUSED to submit to organomercury vaccination.

In Australia this year, the flu vaccine has been withdrawn from a section of the population due to deaths occuring within hours after these vaccines to healthy people.

I haven't found out if the vaccine killing and maiming were organomercury but in this world of LIES, OBFUSCATION and DECEIT there is EVERY reason to believe that in the absence of information that we can assume the vaccines DO contain mercury.

If they don't then this spells BIG trouble for the whole of our vaccines.

I prefer to believe in simple TRUTHS such as organomercury vaccines can be shown to STILL be toxic even when the vaccine is diluted 100 fold.

In our current world where neat vaccines EXIST which can be shown to be non toxic the only logical conclusion is that Government, Regulators and Vaccine Makers are not playing Russian Roulette with our childs lives but are guilty of ATTEMPTED MURDER.

To date more than a MILLION healthy children have died after a vaccine.

Orac with his expertise should be held responsible for his part in persuading people to be injected with TOXIC chemicals knowing NON TOXIC examples exist.

For me orac is a part of a SERIAL KILLER mentality.

In a normal world one murder elicits polic action but in the world of a million deaths it seems ONLY those that die after mercury vaccines have problems. And of course the SURVIVING family and especially MOM. Thanks Professor CUR MSBP Meadow and your ROTTEN legacy to womankind and children.

Patrons99 - Thanks for taking a look at my proposal. The reason I got interested in fMRI is that it is less invasive than PET, and it appears to reveal problems (metabolic problems) even when there is no visible pathology.

I wish I could work in research, but have not been able to find a group (in the Boston area) that shares my interests. Inflammation, from aluminum, mercury, lead, ischemia etc. may show up.

The inferior colliculi have higher blood flow and metabolism than any other area of the brain. I have some references on my website. More later. I am on vacation in Europe with my husband - he is dragging me off to the breakfast buffet right now. . .

@ Eileen Nicole Simon - Wow! Your research proposal is most impressive. fMRI would appear to have tremendous potential applicability, at least, at first impression, from someone (myself) who is not familial with the recent literature in this area.

Just a little brain-storming. I wonder what effect injections of aluminum salts and aluminum adjuvants have on proton relaxation times. Might the signal perturbation be strong enough to be image-able? Would there be enough contrast resolution? If the aluminum is inducing stasis of blood, emboli, thrombosis, microvascular ischemia, and infarction, can that be imaged and localized with MRI? How well does MRI do at localizing inflammation?

In your proposal, you state:

"The special brightness of the inferior colliculi may be because they have the highest blood flow in the brain even in the absence of stimulation."

Is their special brightness due to higher flow (perfusion) or higher metabolic activity? Real question...I'm not being rhetorical. I'm being naive.

Why not correlate fMRI brain images with an FDG-PET study looking at tissue viability? If the colliculi are "cold" on an FDG-PET study of the vaccinated group at T2, and "cold" on the co-registered fMRI slices, might that indicate that the colliculi in the vaccinated group at T2, are either ischemic or infarcted and non-viable?

Here's the link to the taped interview of Dr Chris Shaw (a neurobiologist at the University of British Columbia) by Dr Deagle that I referred to. I provided the link in another thread, which I've provided here to put it into context. It's not just the mercury. Aluminum adjuvants are neurotoxins! Eliminating the mercury will not make vaccines "safe". It will only make them somewhat less toxic.

The Nuremberg Code directive #3 in particular mandates that research with animals should precede experimentation with human subjects. Thus more research like that of Hewitson et al. needs to be done, and should have been done before mandating the kind of vaccine schedule children are subjected to now.

Thanks again, Benedetta - Seriously, I'd like to join a group such as this and dedicate the rest of my life, what remains of it, to looking into these crucial questions, which have direct impact on human health, worldwide. God sometimes works in mysterious ways. Yes, I'm eclectic. This may be an asset. If anyone out there can help me connect with such a research group, I'd be grateful. It would be pretty easy to match my current salary.

I tried to further the dialog in various blogs over the last year or so, with varying degrees of success. As examples, google the words "patrons99 and aluminum" or "patrons99 and germs". See if you get any hits.

I highly recommend that you listen to the taped interviews of Dr Chris Shaw by Dr Deagle in the links I provided in my last comment. They literally brought tears to my eyes. EVERYTHING came into clearer focus! Let me know what you think.

What is the old quote the hero always says in crime investigated stories.

"I do not believe in coincidence" or "There is no such thing as coincidence"

How far does the rabbit hole go.

But I was talking about with your knowledge of so many things, and the way you think; whether you stop your day job, and really help with the research, or just keep bringing so much to these blogs - well that is pretty good thing o.

Thanks Benedetta - I don't have the details on what exactly went on at the Columbia University PET facility. I am WARY of the timing. Just coincidental? Hmmmm.

During the two years in the early 1990's that I was Associate Medical Director for DuPont Pharma's radiopharmaceutical division, my primary responsibility was SAFETY. Clinical input on ongoing clinical research studies in support of NDAs and postmarketing studies, clinical interface with marketing and sales, were also responsibilities.

The buck always stops with SAFETY and ETHICS. That is as it should be for anyone with an MD after their name who took the Oath of Hippocrates, which is effectively a promise to do no harm.

Just a word of caution to these investigators. It may just be serendipity, but for whatever reason, the FDA may start looking VERY closely at functional imaging with radiopharmaceuticals to ensure regulatory compliance. Look at what's going on at Columbia University's PET facility. Don't get sloppy. Don't cut ANY corners. Not to insinuate you ever would. Make sure that your informed consents and ethical principles for clinical research studies (e.g. Declaration of Helinski and Nuremberg Code) are unassailable.

I have a question. If I could find my old brain scans fro when they were scanning me for siezure activity, could it be used to compare to these images? If so, I am so making a sign and putting it up on some sites!!

How do we know that the diminished opoid binding in the vaccinated group was not due, at least in part, to diminished perfusion or diminished viability?

Before pharma's surrogates and shills (e.g., FDA) do something to prevent it, we need more studies of this type looking at perfusion and viability using either PET, SPECT, magnetic resonance imaging, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy. We also need histopathologic correlation with post mortem specimens from brain, heart, and gut, including atomic absorption/emission and/or field desorption mass spectrometry. BTW - I could easily be persuaded to give up my daytime job (Internal Medicine) and get involved in studies such as this VERY exciting pilot study.

Thank you for highlighting this research. I was able to download the article, and have a question about figure 2, p 153. It looks to me as though the inferior colliculi (midbrain auditory nuclei) in the control animals maintain the same DPN binding at T2, whereas binding in the exposed animals is diminished at T2. I will contact the lead author about this and the following:

The inferior colliculi, though not volumes of interest (VOI) in this study, have higher blood flow and metabolism than any other area of the brain. I will continue to try to point out the vulnerability of auditory nuclei, which are essential for learning to speak.

I also have question about the article on neonatal reflexes. I can't find it online in the journal cited, but it was "withdrawn" from the journal Neurotoxicology. I would like to read this article too.

I can tell you from my 40+ years trying to question mainstream medicine, they are not really interested in evidence, just avoiding anyone who might undermine their authority.

We sure do have Facebook connected. After you read the entire article, there is a link that says "Share on Facebook". Click there and it will connect this article to your Facebook profile. Thanks for sharing with your friends.

Shouldn't every marketed vaccine be rigorously screened for "adventitious presence" of biotech-enhanced events such as contamination with non-human DNA, retroviruses, reverse transcriptases, and oncogenes?

As amply demonstrated by this pilor study in non-human primates, the technology exists to begin systematic analyses in areas such as these.

In my humble opinion, vaccine madnessa and mythology poses a clear and present danger to public health, worldwide. Unless we live in jab-free, hermnetically-sealed bubbles, no one will be completely-spared from this crisis of vaccine-associated disease.

'The cortical landscape differs between healthy people and individuals with brain disorders that originate during development, such as autism. These shape differences suggest that connections between brain regions of affected individuals also depart from the norm.'

My most recent baby went to sleep on his tummy, I never felt I was risking this unvaccinated baby's life, because I "believed" the saving factor in the "back to bed program" COULD indicate someone knew that seizures after vaccines could cause smothering. I suggest all vaccinated babies be put on their backs for this reason. It WOULD be interesting to find out if the amydgala plays a part in sids. I've had two friends lose their babies , one five days after dpt,yet diagnosed at autopsy Kawasaki,he was seven months old. She drove him from the doctors office to the hospital at the doctors orders while he was having a stroke. Horrendous story, worse outcome.

In regard to what implications it could bring to bear on potential immediate applications for helping those with ASD, the first idea I revisit is oxytocin, with it's impact on the amygdala and it's connection to sensory processing and emotional response, role in trust and memory formation, etc. Though so many people with ASD have such a broad range of differences and different combinations of manifestations, finding something that could apply across a broader cross-section would be awesome. If a large percentage of ASD people have amygdala related changes post-vaccinations, focusing some additional effort at treatments that affect the amygdala could be warranted here (of course while pursuing which parts of the vaccine(s) cause the most changes to the amygdala.)

Quoting Barbaraj: "I have to wonder if EACH vaccinated member of the group(cohort vaccinated in the 90's) suffered SOME damage, which could well explain the generation of self medicating , anxious, depressed, children and teens. Were any of the vaccinated study group unharmed?"

I work in a high profile university counseling center and I can tell you with certainty that what we have started seeing more than any other diagnosis in the last few years is ANXIETY and increasingly AD(H)D, impulsivity, and Bipolar Disorder. Years ago the main problem we saw was depression, usually over failed or lost relationships. Severity level of all diagnoses is at an all time high. This has been documented and is consistent in colleges across the country.

@ Jenny - "I wonder, also, if there is autopsy information out there that can be studied re: the size of the amygdala in typical children who pass away due to accidents vs ASD children who've passed away due to accidents?"

Good question! All of the so-called SIDS death autopsies should be revisited, in that there is a growing body of literature that SIDS deaths are really manifestations of acute/subacute vaccine toxicity.

I am particularly interested in knowing what role, if any, inflammatory macrophages and cytokines may be playing in vaccine-associated deaths. We need more histopathology studies on necropsy specimens from brain, heart, gut, and bone marrow. Histology sections from the amygdala and throughout the brain should be studied. Mass spectrometry, looking for aluminum and mercury, may be helpful here, too. At this early stage, animal models of human disease are extremely valuable. Veterinary medicine has examples of vaccinoses and zoonoses.

Small, pilot studies are generally easy to criticize. They are very useful in identifying potentially useful areas for further investigation and for initial hypothesis testing. This particular study deserves strong praise, for many reasons, including the fact that the publication was not ghostwritten by the global pharma cartel.

"I want to point out, aside from any discussion of the merits of this study, that observations of cranial size and morphology are generally not associated with brain development. It is more likely that they reflect changes in the fluid and membranes surrounding the brain (in young children) or bone composition/growth (in older children.) While these may be clinically important, they do not reflect brain development in any reliable or systematic way."

Nope, sorry, you're dead wrong. My oldest son (ultimately dx'ed with PDD-NOS and tethered spinal cord) was evaluated for craniosynostosis back in 2000. Go look it up. The fluid, membrane, and bone composition do impact crainal size and they are critical to brain development.

I'm so excited to see this research published. I'll be hitting the books to study what is already known about the amygdala. If there is no reliable information yet out there re: what the normal physical size of the amygdala is and becomes as the brain matures sans vaccines, I'm sure it with be forthcoming soon. And since this appears to be a measurement that can be done without an overly invasive process, I'm sure it would not be difficult in the every growing vaccine-cognizant population to garner sufficient recruits for such studies i.e. babies and kids with parents not intending to vaccinate their kids versus children receiving vaccinations versus children already diagnosed with aspergers and kids high on the spectrum.

I wonder, also, if there is autopsy information out there that can be studied re: the size of the amygdala in typical children who pass away due to accidents vs ASD children who've passed away due to accidents?

At the very least, this pilot study lays the groundwork for what are sure to be even more supportive research projects. And it does so in a way that it would be hard for anyone to justify the further studies in unvaccinated vs vaccinated kids would be unethical. The technology to accomplish this is already here.

"Several thousand (good and rigorous) studies have been published using the self-administration model of drug addiction, and we are far from understanding exactly what is happening within the model, let alone how it generalizes to human disorders."

First off, it's an apples and oranges comparison as we aren't talking about a physical/emotional/spiritual disorder regarding why someone would continue destructive behavior in spite of the obvious consequences. We are talking about whether or not injecting foreign substances into the bloodstream of infants is toxic. Going back to the addiction scenario, a better comparison would be whether excessive alcohol consumption is harmful. It didn’t take thousands of studies to determine this; the link is so obvious it can be drawn from simple observation. People that drink to excess die early of nasty stuff like cirrhosis and malnutrition, not to mention car wrecks.

Second, I’m not willing to wait for thousands of studies. By the time this happens, the schedule will have grown from 49 doses by age six to probably hundreds. I saw my first son regress after receiving seven vaccine doses in one office visit (as I’ve also seen alcoholics die of cirrhosis), I’m not willing to take that chance with my second son. I tell my family, friends and co-workers of my observations and my suspicions regarding a link. It’s anecdotal, but that doesn’t mean it’s of no value.

Third, there is a tremendous double-standard as to what needs thousands of studies and what doesn’t. The IOM didn’t need thousands of studies to proclaim any further research into a thimerisol/autism link was a waste of time and money. They did this after a few retrospective studies that used highly questionable methods. Very few in the medical or scientific establishment questioned this dogmatic conclusion, that was left to the parents.

I grow very weary of the observations of tens of thousands of parents being dismissed as “anecdotal”. Whether it be regression after vaccines, the effectiveness of GFCF regarding or children’s behavior, or whatever; we didn’t used to need scientists to validate our every observation. Intelligent people can observe actions and draw conclusions regarding the effects. The pooling of information via the internet dramatically increases the speed and effectiveness to which conclusions can be drawn (a sort of real-time peer review). Yes, mistakes are made, but the same happens in poorly designed or sloppy studies, or those studies driven by an agenda.

The saddest comment I've read today, concerning the use of macaque monkeys.."it was exceedingly sad to think of what happened to these infants for no good reason." SAD!?
The mindset that allows corporate gain to trump our children's safety is alive and well on the site you described Nora. Within the reading that heartfelt concern for macaque monkey infants was never duplicated for human infants.
To misinterpret is a failure, to lie for the purpose of deceit is a deeper moral issue, I suspect the twisting of my words, as they were on that site, points to the latter. NO ONE suggested a saline injection would shrink amygdala. I always find it interesting in that such tactics are so often used by those denying science. It's criminal that millions of dollars are parceled out for fraudulent epidemiological presentations, yet no money is available for the animal model, which has historically given answers.

The study seems to be stirring up considerable excitement, but I am certain that no one reading this is smart enough to contact the publisher requesting an order for a few thousand copies of this issue for selective distribution.

Now I guess the CDC anti-litigation bloc of Autism research featuring the likes of Poul "fast fingers" Thorsen and Paul "Machine Gun" Offit are gonna have to pull a polish study out of their butts to save their skin?

Orac is having a field day ripping apart this study just as expected, I saw this post and thought someone should be made aware of underhanded comments being posted here on AOA from Orac group.

@Brian

I was the one who posted the question about 'normal' amygdala development, in hopes of planting a 'seed' of doubt in their readers. I didn't even see the response post with the Payne et al article before they removed it. So far someone has offered that the 'control' group shows us what is normal, and someone has suggested saline offers a protective factor (by shrinking the amygdala). I posted a response playing 'dumb' again, and then posted one with the Payne reference...I'm guessing those won't show up, and my original one will be removed. Time will tell.

I want to point out, aside from any discussion of the merits of this study, that observations of cranial size and morphology are generally not associated with brain development. It is more likely that they reflect changes in the fluid and membranes surrounding the brain (in young children) or bone composition/growth (in older children.) While these may be clinically important, they do not reflect brain development in any reliable or systematic way.

Also, the findings in this study are highly preliminary - first of all, this is only a very young model, and all animal models need years and years and many (possibly hundreds) of studies before we can know exactly what they mean to people. These findings must be replicated in a larger sample and across a broad range of models before we can say that they are reliable and thus possibly informative about autism in humans.

Working in the field of drug addiction with the self-administration model, I know from experience that it is a grave mistake (scientifically) to take any single study using an animal model as if it definitively answered any questions about a human disorder. Several thousand (good and rigorous) studies have been published using the self-administration model of drug addiction, and we are far from understanding exactly what is happening within the model, let alone how it generalizes to human disorders. I suspect that there is no animal model that is free from this downfall.

It would be wise, I think, to encourage further study in this area to reproduce and extended these findings before making any firm conclusions about them. In any case, any sort of complex conclusions about the etiology of autism from this study seem to be premature (to me, at least,) as there is little (if any) independent validation of its internal or external validity.

To speak more specifically about this study: the control group is sort of hard to believe in as "normal", because they show such a marked decrease in amygdala volume over such a short time. While cells may be undergoing widespread apoptosis in normal brain development, the brain as a whole (as well as its parts) is still expanding in volume throughout early development; it is simply the case that many neurons are dying (although not nearly as many as are being made.) It is very unlikely, given what we know about neurodevelopment (although it is impossible to tell without a larger sample size,) that macaques lose almost 40% of their amygdala volume during normal development. This indicates that the control group was of questionable validity, as it doesn't look like what we'd expect from truly normal animals. Add to this that the control group is only two animals, and it's clear that this study needs to be replicated with larger groups for its results to be valid.

El's head size jumped after the last vaccines he received at 5/6 months. I remember it catching our ped's attn as he went over El's growth, pausing as second, before going on. Those were the set of shots that seemed to obviously harm him, and the rest were discontinued.

You asked why the autism rate wasn't 1 in 60 in the 90's? One reason is there is a delay in the release of the cohort numbers...but also, take a look at this CDC vaccine schedule from 1995 http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/PDF/rr/rr4405.pdf
page 2. there were 18 shots for 9 different diseases, birth-18 years of age. Compare with a growth to current: 53 shots of 15 diseases, birth through 18. even with the majority of thimerosal removed, the growth of this schedule since 1995(including yearly mercury-laden flu shots) and untold amounts of aluminum (another heavy metal) can easily account for the continuing increase in vaccine-damage. I imagine the incidence will not go down (unless due to non-compliance). The amount of injections is now so great the cdc puts out three different vaccination charts: children, adolescent, and adult.

Most of our children were given these shots until removed from the market, at what time I don't know, there have been reports of some pediatric practices holding on to them as late as 2005. The most recent numbers from the cdc ,giving us the latest ratio, were founded on children born in 1998, I believe. We have only this latest number to compare, so we must compare the shots given in 1998. When doing a study such as this, we again aren't taking the vaccines apart, antigen vs adjuvants vs preservatives. My thinking is we can prove the shots caused autism for this epidemic group, yet we can not prove what part of, or which vaccine, caused the actual disease process. So far it looks like synergy, live viruses following heavy metals, imo, but no one really knows. This gives those that promote vaccines grounds to continue, because we can't prove "what that ingredient is", they love it.

Stephanie,
All of the published US studies that report high rates of autism, especially those setting rates in the range of 1 in 100, are based on populations of children born during the 1990s when thimerosal was in use for hep B, Hib and DTaP vaccines. Of course, influenza vaccines contain thimerosal and children born later were exposed in utero to thimerosal at comparable levels (on a weight adjusted basis). But we don't yet have good data on autism rates in more recent birth cohorts.

"receiving the vaccine schedule used in the 1990’s that contained the mercury-based preservative thimerosal"
How come no one has yet commented on this statement in the first paragraph? According to my pediatrician the vaccines that our practice gives our children are thimerosal free and in single dose viles. Isn't this the trend? Of thimerosal free or low thimerosal as a preservative? And if these findings are so prominent with the high thimerosal vaccines and the schedule set in the 90s, why wasn't the rate of autism 1 in 60 in the 90's or early 2000s? At what age are the children being diagnosed? Surely not 10-20 years old?

Betty Watson, I think your question is a valid one, and hope that by studying the control group, the baseline of normal should be fairly constant, showing no deviations brought about by similar emotional "trauma", that being a shot given(saline),and no change as compared to the study group given the actual vaccines. For the control group to show no effect in comparison would be enough evidence . In the case of vaccines, replicating this one after another to compare will never be enough to hold off the criticism, and some assumption will be made that saline is protective of brain development...(just waiting for this shoe to fall with some such nonsense.)
I have to wonder if EACH vaccinated member of the group suffered SOME damage, which could well explain the generation of self medicating , anxious, depressed, children and teens. Were any of the vaccinated study group unharmed ?

This may be the tipping point! I hope many more studies of this sort will be done. Is there a study in the works that might show whether any of these primates' brains change for the worse as time goes by with and without more vaccinations, and whether, with treatment, these brain scans change in a positive direction? I can envision all kinds of possibilities here.

No worries Benedetta. It was just something I wondered. Seeing that autism and siezures seem to go hand and hand, I wondered if those who already had a history of siezures in the family would be more or less likely to have a child with an ASD along the line.

Seeing it seemed to be so in my family made me wonder if given the vaccine, if having a history of such made me more likely to not be able to fight off toxins.

The increased head size is likely caused by heavy metal interference with apoptosis (programmed cell death) which is the brain's way of modelling itself into an optimum configuration. My older autistic son had a remarkably large head as a toddler which is now a more normal size as a teenager.

The paper is available and may be difficult to read certainly I have problems.

It shows clearly though if you take trouble:

The brains of animals are inflated or get bigger by a disturbing amount and at least 10 per cent and often by more than 20 per cent. This is in line with simple head measurements of boys showing up to 90 per cent head inflation and a cabbage like existence after vaccination.

Remember this expansion is not for one in ten or one in a hundred or even one in a thousand. This dangerous expansion occurs to EVERY vaccinated anaimal. Only limitation of harm prevents every child turning into a cabbage.

When animals were not vaccinated the brain volums actually DECREASED and again by a factor of ten per cent or even twenty per cent.

What is the explanation here? Have they been vaccinated before use in the experiments? And is this measurement the RECOVERY from earlier INSULTS before the research team acquired them?

It seems as said not only is this already known but why in heaven arent these SIMPLE head measurement checks done.

As an individual that had all his vaccines from age 5 to 25 years of age and could express verbally any problems it is HORRIFIC that we vaccinate infants ad nauseum when we are aware of 10, 20, 90 per cent blow ups in head size with subsequent recovery to some sort of "normality".

We save one child every ten years from a horrific death from measles but do we need to pay for this impressive gain by blowing up the heads of every child by at least 10 per cent to avoid this pandemic though clearly not as much as H1N1 when 95 per cent less people died od flu than normal and strangely 95 per cent of French people REFUSED their organomercury vaccines they so willingly allow for their infants.

Many children vaccine damaged get their families lives destroyed when a parent is convicted of SBS.

The only cases I have studied always show an immediate and large increase in head size after the vaccine but because there is no check in the week after vaccination it gets lost often in the haze of normal head growth.

There is a strong case for every person to be head size checked both before and then two days after.

Of course the authorities always have known about this head expansion after vaccines but in the interests of an industry that makes trillions of pounds and pays out to epidemiologists, regulators and government in 10 000 dollar dollops of what is called lobbying but might be called bribery in plain language we see the death of millions of infants and the neurological problems to one child in three in USA but never mind they have their pay packets, bribery money and like Tony blair cynically use our knowledge to protect their little darlings from the vaccine cull of humanity.

I find this research apalling. Once again it shows beyond doubt problems with vaccines that need attetntion. A lot of the known harm from vaccines goes back for more than a hundred years.

We do need safe vaccines but we have a policy that can at times injure more than 90 per cent and kill more than 50 per cent and everybody shuts their eyes to the harm even to the extent of putting people in prison as a proxy for harm by vaccines; Sally Clark double life from the death to her healthy boy 6 hours after his vaccine (organomercury loaded).
My own last experience of getting my tutor group vaccinated at age 14 and having one die less than a year later from brain cancer.
Of course because of the known safety of vaccines no one even thought of delayed vaccine harm as "it does'nt exist".

So sad but not one of the millions vaccine killed EVER seems to complain?

Wow!! Amazing that this study has been done. And amazing that it was not done before, by those responsible for our vaccine program. The immunity from tort liability should have made them more willing to explore problems instead of just more able to cover them up.

Millions and millions spent on research to discover the genes which cause abnormal brain growth, when the answer is right there in front of us just waiting for a relatively simple study such as this one.

Want to clarify that the report on Frederick where this comment was made- " His occiput and frontal region was markedly prominent." was from 1942, when he was almost 6. Kanner also had this to say of the original eleven - "Five had relatively large head circumferences."

Bt the way, many thanks to Acta Neurobiologiae Experimentalis for having the courage to publish this. They are going to catch all kinds of grief. I wouldn't be at all surprised if the major medical organizations work behind the scenes to discredit and destroy them.

This is important and existing news, even for those already convinced of the link to vaccines. In my own book (LEAD BABIES, How heavy metals are causing our children's autism, ADHD, learning disabilities, low IQ and behavior problems), there are 2 points that are important to the mercury-autism link; lead potentiates mercury making it many times as toxic... so lead is a key factor in whether an infant exposed to mercury develops autism. Also, the list of mercury sources - from amalgam to jam to soap, is long. Vaccines are but one of the many sources, and the vaccine manufacturers know it!
(Also of interest is that testosterone potentiates with heavy metals, explaining the prevalence of autism, ADHD, and LD's in boys.)

Theodora;
My family has NO history of seizures, yet here we are autism, bipolar, epilepsy.

My son reacted to the DPT shot, and then he had two seizures. It showed up on the EEG as he was going to sleep with no fever. The peds made me so made when they said it was febrile seizures and it was inherited through the family some how. Oh really, they know more about my family than I??
Sorry I am having a bad night and a lot of bad things are replaying in my brain tonight.
The XMRV research paper they were hoping would be released - looks like it is going to be a long time before it is released.

"I get choked up seeing these pictures of brains that are inflamed and made abnormal by vaccines... "

Oh Teresa, me too! To get that visual of what happened to OUR babies makes my blood run cold. The reality of the chain of events that have changed our childrens lives forever is almost too much to comprehend. Thank God for the brave souls who dare to undertake studies like these.

"guys, it's a good start, but 2 groups is not going to cut it. We need many, many more replicating this. It's not going to happen here in the U.S."

Yup, this will be dismissed by the medical establishment as a study conducted by known "anti-vaccine nuts" published in some “third-rate, foreign journal”. They'll say, "Why isn't it published in a reputable, mainstream journal? How do we know the peer review was adequate?"

Of course, they control the "mainstream" journals, they control peer review, and would never let a study like this see the light of day. The system is rigged, and they'll use that to discredit or stifle any study not to their liking.

The only way to break the dam is to keep studies like this coming. In the meantime, we need to get the word out on this one.

Thanks to those who made this study happen and for future studies to help understand what has happened in our children - a mechanism to their illness.

I get choked up seeing these pictures of brains that are inflamed and made abnormal by vaccines...

"Throughout the study period, vaccinated animals showed an increase in total brain volume – a feature of the brain in many young children with autism."

With Dan and Mark's book coming out on the history of mercury,leading up to autism, it made me remember Frederick W, one of the original 11 that Dan reported on in his "Mercury Rising" article-http://www.citypaper.com/news/story.asp?id=13317

"Frederick was Case 2 of 11 children whose behavior "differed markedly and uniquely from anything reported so far," wrote Dr. Leo Kanner, the psychiatrist at Johns Hopkins University who introduced the syndrome to the world and named it "autism....It might be just another coincidence that the father of autism's Case 2 was working with new ethyl mercury compounds seven decades ago when his son was born. Or it might not."

"Frederick was born May 23, 1936, in breech presentation. The mother had "some kidney trouble" and an elective cesarean section was performed about two weeks before term...
The circumference of his head was 21 inches, of his chest 22 inches, of his abdomen 21 inches. His occiput and frontal region was markedly prominent."

"Markedly prominent" sure sounds like it could be a symptom of "an increase in total brain volume." Frederick was born 74 years ago. It is so wrong that it has taken this long to get meaningful research done. Please keep it coming.

Many thanks to these authors who have applied ethics and dedication to their field of work. Their contribution to the millions of individuals affected by biological, epigenetic changes in a susceptible population by the chemical and biological components of multiple vaccines is deeply appreciated by all those who have suffered and been denied medical research and treatment. It is long overdue for the scientific community to investigate the biochemical reactions each of the chemical and biological ingredients of vaccines have on cellular structure, tissue, and organ systems such as the nervous and immune systems. Research beyond simply antibody production and epidemiological studies is long overdue, especially with the scientific technology available today. It is also long overdue to stop the suppression of pathophysiological research in autism spectrum disorders. This disease has been around for almost 70 years, yet very little pathophysiological research has been funded for this disease.

“the research team has already identified delayed acquisition of vital brainstem reflexes in infants exposed to the thimerosal-containing hepatitis B vaccine on the first day of life, compared with unvaccinated animals.”

It seems insane to be jabbing newborns with known neurotoxins before their blood-brain barrier has become functionally competent.

This group might consider also looking into quantitative cerebral perfusion imaging comparing fully vaccinated (per schedule) versus unvaccinated. They MIGHT also identify microvascular cerebral ischemia and infarctions. Along the same lines, it is conceivable that magnetic resonance imaging, with the right pulse sequence and magnetic field gradients, can be employed to study the same or similar cerebrovascular and functional phenomena, comparing fully vaccinated versus unvaccinated.

It may also be feasible to study the pharmacokinetic effect of the vaccine schedules on brain and heart function and perfusion. For example, why were there reports of thrombotic and cardioembolic events shortly after Gardasil administration? The aluminum is prothrombotic. Maybe, Aluminum-26 can be imaged with either SPECT or PET techniques.

Maybe inflammatory cytokines and macrophages could be imaged and quantitated, looking for evidence of systemic innate immune activation.

I'm sure that Pharma's legion of shills and denialists are already planning how to "spin" this work.

In this pilot study, infant macaques receiving the recommended
pediatric vaccine regimen from the 1990’s
displayed a different pattern of maturational changes in
amygdala volume and differences in amygdala-binding
of [11C]DPN following the MMR/DTaP/Hib vaccinations
between T1 and T2 compared with non-exposed
animals. There was also evidence of greater total brain
volume in the exposed group prior to these vaccinations
suggesting a possible effect of previous vaccinations to
which these animals had been exposed.

My daughter had AS and now is in the autism category! I am wondering if it pushed her over the edge into autism. She is high functioning, but still!!! Her speech and language was pretty normal and then it just fell apart between 15 and 18 months. She also had a reaction to her 3 yr old MMR shot. They (the md's) told me it was a "somewhat common" reaction. Her shoulder?arm was so swollen it was the size of my shoulder!!! It was very red and painful! Of course, VERY hot from all the swelling too! Why are we the ones who have to research for our children? I feel like a lot of others, I am sure, when I say the medical seems to have failed us...

OMG! This is manna from Heaven. I've been praying for something like this. Now, at last, we are getting serious about proving causality between the vaccine schedules and disease. Functional neuroimaging is one of possibly several modalities that can be employed to this end...there may be other techniques as well. We have the technology to prove causality!

Every justice on the bench of the Supreme Court and every lawmaker in Congress needs to understand the full ramifications of this work! This is NOT "junk" science!

These scans look remarkably simular to some scans of the brains of people with Asperger's Syndrome. I found some pics that compared the aspie brain with the regular functioning brain for a workshop I did a year ago.

I remember reading about an inflamed area of the brain, towrards the back. It is interesting how nearly identical Aspergers and Autism are in the scans. It's baffling, how much a slight difference can mean. It makes me wonder what small difference causes oen to have AS instead of full blown autism.

My mom once had a theory thatthose with full blown autism may have originally had AS, which made them more likely to be injured by foriegn toxins. And those toxins pushed them off the AS edge and into Autism.

I can't say I agree with her. I've had another thought. In my family, there is a history on bot my mom and dad's side of siezures. My mom has absent siezures, something nearly impossible to detech and my dad had regular epilepsy. It made me wonder if those who have a history of siezure activity or inherit this from parents may be more likely to be damaged by vaccines.

If so, it would mean those with family history of siezures should be not taking the vaccine gospel!!